


pillow fort building agenda

by subtlelights



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: 7 year-old senku, Attempt at Humor, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Pre-petrification, Sentiments, Taiju is mentioned, but also post-petrification, byakuya and senku bonding, byakuya being byakuya, finally finished haha, ishigami villagers - Freeform, pillow forts, subtlelights, this is also an attempt at fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25976713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subtlelights/pseuds/subtlelights
Summary: “What’s a pillow fort?”“It’s like a little house you make with blankets and pillows, Senku!”--it's just 2.9k words abt senku and byakuya building a pillow fort
Relationships: Ishigami Byakuya & Ishigami Senkuu
Comments: 15
Kudos: 98





	pillow fort building agenda

“What’s a pillow fort?” asked the seven-year-old Senku, lines forming in between his eyebrows as clear confusion spread across his expression.

A wide grin spread across the face of the child’s father and with great enthusiasm he explained, “It’s like a little house you make with blankets and pillows, Senku!” 

The said boy’s eyes sparkled with interest from his father’s words, his mouth forming a small ‘o’ before he pursed his lips when he found several inconsistencies at the idea.

“But you’re already in a house, what’s the point of having to make another house?” with a slight lilt of his head, he looked up at Byakuya once more with the question. The father in question let out a breathy laugh and gave Senku a pat on the head, slightly ruffling his already wild hair.

Byakuya looked back down at Senku, smile still intact, “Nothing,” his answer made the crease between Senku’s eyebrows become more prominent, but before he could ask his next question Byakuya continued, “There’s no logical point in making a pillow fort, it was just fun. We build it, we lay inside for a couple of hours watching movies and eating snacks, then we take it down.” 

Senku stared back at his grinning father, accepting the reply. They both sat on the sofa with the television softly speaking in the background, on which Senku moved his attention to.

“So in short, a waste of time.” Senku deadpanned, gazing into the television. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. A statement that left the older man briefly stunned and unmoving with only a few eye twitches.

Byakuya let out yet another laugh, “Well Senku, a dear friend of mine once said; ‘Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.’ And I happen to have enjoyed those times.” He spoke with such a mighty tone (that Senku quickly picked up on) with his arm raised and pointer finger extended, his usual teaching pose.

“Bertrand Russell’s been long dead, you couldn’t have had reached his generation let alone met him.” With a quirked eyebrow and a mocking frown, Senku looked back up at his father- who was now pouting at him.

It wasn’t unusual to Byakuya whenever Senku recognized the quotes that he occasionally spoke of, Senku’s already read more than enough number of books for a seven-year-old after all.

Byakuya’s pout curled into his characteristic grin before he pushed himself off of the sofa, his son’s eyes trailed at his figure walking away and into the hallway and disappearing into one of the rooms. Shrugging, Senku shifted his focus back to the television in front of him and listen to the scientist currently explaining the Laws of Gravity. 

Not even five minutes passed when loud stomping and sounds of bumping came from the direction where his father disappeared into which made Senku redirect his attention back behind him. The sight of his still grinning father standing in the middle of the hallway with pillows tucked between his arms and what seemed like two folded blankets sitting on his head made Senku’s eyes amusedly narrow and his eyebrow quirk upwards.

“I just had an idea, Senku!” Excitement that rivaled a child’s on Christmas morning was evident in his tone.

With a knowing tone Senku answered, “Let me guess, you’re going to build a pillow fort.” He stuck his pinky into his nose.

“No,” Just as the word left Byakuya’s lips, his smile widened (if that was still possible) and with his chin raised and chest puffed he looked at Senku with plotting eyes, “ _We’re_ building a pillow fort.”

“Haa? You’re perfectly capable of building it yourself, why do _I_ have to be involved?” Senku reasoned taking out his finger from his nose. His eyes gave out a short shimmer when his father mentioned the building of a fort, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t slightly interested. But with the mention of physical effort, his interest flickered.

The older man trudged towards the dining table where he set the items in his arms down before facing the watchful child right across him. Raising his hand, he pointed at Senku.

“We’re building the fort there!” he announced. Senku blinked at his father before sighing and got off the sofa. Byakuya almost felt like celebrating when he saw his son get off the sofa to, assumingly, cooperate if it wasn’t for Senku starting to walk away to his room.

“Senkuuu!” 

\--

After about five minutes of Byakuya whining and persuading Senku into joining him in his fort building agenda, they found themselves back in the living room rearranging the furniture to make room for the soon-to-be-built pillow fort. Well, the furniture moving was mostly done by Byakuya with Senku standing on the side watching. 

“Right, Senku! Grab the pillows I’ll grab the chairs,” Byakuya gave his son a thumbs up and a wink. With no protests, Senku complied with a shrug his lips pursed and eyes, no doubt, sparkled—something that went unnoticed by his father. 

And so the fort building started, Byakuya carried the chairs into the living room and setting them in a rectangular arrangement and Senku grabbing the pillows and placing them down on the floor area inside the chairs. He frowned slightly at the number of pillows on the floor and decided they weren’t enough. 

“And now, we drape the blanke—” Byakuya started, turning to where Senku was supposed to be only to be met with the pile of pillows on the ground. His thought would’ve been that Senku tried to escape again, but it was quickly halted when he caught his son struggling to carry more pillows in from the hallway.

Pillows from the top of the pile in his arms were falling from how he walked and almost tripped on the carpet. Byakuya let out a loud laugh at the sight of Senku.

“Oi, quit laughing and help me carry these.” Senku scowled, to which made Byakuya cackle more before wiping his eyes and mumbling ‘okay’s. Senku was too busy with trying to balance the remaining pillows in his arms to notice his father grabbing the phone and facing the camera to him.

“Senku, you’re doing amazing , son!” Byakuya gushed, crouched, and phone still in hand. For another two minutes Byakuya continued filming Senku while giggling at his sons cute struggles until Senku told Byakuya that he’d ‘ten billion percent go to bed’ if he didn’t help carry the pillows. And with a sheepish smile Byakuya put his phone away and heeded to his son’s empty threat.

\--

“The angle of that blanket’s way off!” Senku scolded his father with his hand extended and pointing at the crooked tent made of blankets. “If we’re going to build this fort, at least make it decent.” His hair shook along with his head, and a sigh left his pouty lips.

Byakuya scratched his head and smiles sheepishly at his “not-so-eager” son. The coy smile was soon replaced with a soft grin when he replayed his son’s words. 

“The chairs are too close to each other, it’s making the blankets cave in and the space inside smaller,” Senku thought out loud, his thumb and forefinger placed under his chin, and his eyebrows closer to each other than usual. 

Byakuya already figured out what his son wanted to be done, and thus, he reached over to the chairs to move them further apart. In the process of doing so, Senku walked under the hung up blanket to move the other chair without having to remove the linen itself, so when Byakuya moved the furniture, the blanket slipped off of the chair and on Senku. 

Senku didn’t pay it any mind and continued to push the chair away, mostly because he found nothing about it that could hinder his movements (well at least not at the moment). Because when he finished moving the furniture, and was about to exit the blanket robe, he realized that he had underestimated the size of the blanket and began flipping the large linen over his head in hopes of escaping the blanket pile.

He couldn’t help but let a groan reverberate through his throat when he heard a chuckle coming from his father. The feeling of another set of hands shuffling through the cloth made Senku’s own instinctively reach for them.

An opening through the blanket revealed a grinning Byakuya, his hands holding the blanket apart around Senku’s head. Before Senku could even react, Byakuya wrapped the cloth around his son’s face and holding it in place just under his chin. With Senku’s hair and ears hidden behind the blanket, and only his face peeking, he pouted at his father who very slightly chuckled at his son’s make-face.

“Look, Senku! You’re wearing a space suit!” he exclaimed, clearly enjoying the teasing he gives his son. The mention of space-suit caused Senku’s pout to curl into a soft smile and then, very quickly, into a not-so-very-soft smirk.

With a huff, the boy shrugged the blanket off of him, faced his father, and with a chuckle said: “That would be a very sucky space suit.” To which the father responded with a short chortle.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Byakuya looked down at his son, his smile never leaving his lips. “But! We can get a better one with a working helmet and visor from one of the costume stores I found.” Senku busied himself with gathering the pool of blankets around his feet, barely ignoring his father’s suggestion, though his small smile had yet to falter from his lips. “Maybe bring Taiju with us too, pick costumes for Halloween!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Waving his father off to drop the topic before pointing to the currently paused task at hand. With enthusiasm seeping through, he ordered: “Grab the other ends of the blankets.” 

\--

It was half past eleven o’clock when the pair had finished, totaling about an hour and thirty minutes since they started. It honestly wouldn’t have taken that long to build such a small fortress, but thanks to Byakuya getting distracted with every ‘cute’ thing his son does, they ended up stretching the time.

Throughout the entirety of the process was filled with Senku pointing and giving out orders. He might not admit it, but he felt excited when his father suggested they build one. Despite that, the enthusiasm showed when he fixed everything that he found, in his words, unstable. His father, of course, immediately picked up on his excitement from the beginning, thus, he thought about adding some twists to their fort.

Senku’s eyes brightened as did the fairy lights when Byakuya hung them up the inside of the dim fort. Of course, Byakuya used Senku’s brief distraction as a window to get snaps of his reaction with his phone to which Senku only rolled his eyes to.

Even so, the boy’s appreciation for the little twist showed on the soft smile that curled his lips.

“We can have our little pretend stargazing here. It’s more comfortable than an uncushioned tent.” Byakuya lied down first, but flinched when his back hit something sturdy—Senku’s science book.

“So, Senku. How do you like my surprise twist?” A proud look settled on his face accompanied by a cheeky smile when he turned to face his son. Only for that look to be replaced with a cry of surprise and disbelief when he caught a glimpse of his son cutting a piece off the end of the fairy lights’ wire.

“This should be useful for my experiment.” The child cackled evilly, his father fidgeting in the background trying to warn him about electrical safety. 

They eventually calmed down when Byakuya agreed to give Senku the fairy lights after. Settling side by side onto the pillow pile under the blanket, Byakuya’s mouth imparted to Senku a variety of topics ranging from suggestions of inviting Taiju next time to childhood memories to space facts and opinions to future plans. 

The documentary playing in the background rolled its credits as it reached the end, signaling bedtime for Senku. Yawning, the boy shifted when his father shut the television and went to close the fairy lights, engulfing them in darkness. Byakuya grabbed a disk-like object that he had been saving for this moment. 

A wire that connected from the disk was plugged into an electrical brick, and as soon as the action was done, dots of light spread across the ceiling, patterns that were so easily recognized by the blond child who stopped rubbing his eyes when he caught the specks of light on the ceiling.

His eyes widened as he examined every position of each of the specks of light. His mouth was agape, his eyebrows raised, and his breath hitched slightly, elation and adoration present in his young features. A faint blush bringing color to his cheeks, though it wouldn’t be visible in the dark.

In his mind, he began naming every pattern of light; Lepus, Mensa, Pictor, Reticulum, Taurus, and Orion. There were so much more that spread across the room.

He looked back at his father who was squatting in front of the fort and himself, holding the contraption a proud but soft smile etching his face.

“This is better pretend-stargazing-worthy material than those fairy lights don’t you think?” he set the lamp down and shuffled next to his son, whose eyes went back to glue themselves onto the imitation of the January night sky.

“Yeah,” his lips curled up into a soft grin. “It is.” He lied down face up next to his father, and tucked himself in. 

Byakuya watched his son as he did so, his smile still present. Senku had already closed his eyes when Byakuya prepared himself to sleep. He gazed back at the faux constellations before closing his eyes, and pressing this moment deep into his brain.

“You got the wrong constellations for August, though.”

\--

  
“Senku! Senku!”

Senku’s attention was redirected from the flask he was holding to the call of the young explorer from the entrance of his laboratory. He could almost hear the smile from the tone of her voice.

“We’ve finished setting up the village’s monthly tradition! You should join us!” her hands moved all over the place, unable to contain her excitement.

Senku only lifted an eyebrow before grinning and getting back on his work.

“You can go ahead, I still have to clear some work.” 

“We’ll wait for you on the platform in front of Ruri-nee’s hut, okay? Be sure to be there by midnight, or you’ll miss the show!” Suika’s smile was still engraved on her cheeks when she left Senku alone in his lab.

“Show?” The scientist muttered to himself right after Suika left. He continued his steady observations on the flask at hand and following through with his nighttime routine.

It seemed that he had forgotten about the time, because a certain mentalist had to fetch him from the lab and escort him into the village. 

Halfway through the second bridge, the scientist could see from the distance the spacious tent-like fort that stood in the middle of what was once a combat platform. Most of the villagers were sat under with piles and piles of flax-woven pillows, some stood just along the boundary between the outside and the inside of the small shelter.

As the pair got closer Suika noticed their presence and made their arrival known to the others by a hushed announcement. 

“Alright, everyone’s here. Settle down to your spots, everyone!” Jasper enunciated to the villagers. Gen motioned Senku to their reserved spot by the middle next to Suika and Chrome.

“What’s all this commotion about?” Senku grumbled when Suika signaled him to lie down. He was about to question again, but didn’t get to when the torches around the fort were put out and everyone began hushing each other.

The darkness fell upon them and everything became quiet, and Senku’s eyebrows stitched together when he presumed that the monthly event Suika told him about was a whole village sleepover.

That was until familiar specks of light appeared on the roof of their fort. The villagers around him gasped and giggled, while he lay there, unmoving, eyes wide, mouth open, and breath hitched. 

_After 3,700 years, he saw the nostalgic artificial constellations again._

The clear and genuine night sky was just above them, outside this little tent they all currently resided in, yet here they all were; staring at the inaccurate representation of that very same view.

“Oh! Look there! That’s Orion!”

Children’s voices and some adults pointed to the ceiling off the shelter where the specks of light were peppered.

“This has been a monthly custom even before most of the villagers were born,” Chrome started. “And yet even though we’ve been seeing it every month since birth, no one ever gets tired of seeing it.” A subtle smile rested on Chrome’s features when he finished.

Senku would’ve normally laughed that off, but, just for this time, he didn’t.

His thoughts drifted off to replay a certain memory of a certain agenda with a certain deadbeat father of his, and as did his eyes wander across the splotches of light atop them.

His lids dropped down and his lips curled into a soft grin before he chuckled and said to himself:

“Would you look at that? That old man’s waste of time turned into a not-so-waste-of-a-time after all.” 

**Author's Note:**

> this was honestly really fun to write :D 
> 
> thanksies for reading hope u liked it <3
> 
> i'm @senkhore on twitter btw! ^3^<3


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